AN INTERVIEW WITH SYDTHECREATIVE

SYD THE CREATIVE an interview with

BY NZINGHA FLORENCE

In College, you’re thrown into this new world where you’re discovering yourself. Imagine then adding a relationship with a whole other human being; yea, it isn’t always easy. Sydney Price, aka SydTheCreative, is a Sophomore Psychology major at Spelman College. She bravely takes on the feat of exposing all the beautiful and not so beautiful aspects of loving another person as a college student.

The creative Sydney is a well-known videographer and YouTuber in the Atlanta University Center with 3.9 thousand subscribers and over 33 thousand views on her most known poetry narrative video, “To My Next Boyfriend.” Her most recent web series “College Students Explain” delves into the perspective of black college students and their relationships, both the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly. “I was inspired by Jubilee Media and The Skin Deep on YouTube to start this series, but I wanted to center my series around college students because I feel like the college experience is really a pivotal time. In terms of approaching love, the black experience is much different and there’s a lot of different things that come into play when thinking about dating or having those romantic experiences. I think that plays a large role in who we choose to date and how we choose to date,” says Price.

The “College Students Explain” web series currently consists of four videos, titled: How They Fell in Love, Why They Are Single, How To Love Someone Through Trauma, and Why They Broke Up. Each video gives the alternate perspectives of a college man and woman who had some form of relationship with each other, led by a stack of

questions they pull from and ask one another. Here is an excerpt from the couple Sharadiant Turner, sophomore at Spelman College, and Collin Concepcion, sophomore at Morehouse College. In the video COLLEGE STUDENTS EXPLAIN: How To Love Someone Through Trauma.

Sharadiant: When was the moment you knew that you loved me?

Collin: The moment I knew that I loved you… There were actually moments here and there… You know, it’d be a joke, one time it’d be something really smart you would say. Another, it’d be something really cute you would do. You know, it all actually related and came together as one. It did come out a little bit late, but definitely, when I meant it, I said it. I mean everything about it too, it hasn’t changed… not one bit.

Collin: What is our biggest conflict in our relationship and what can we do to solve it?

Sharadiant: We handle our issues differently. When you have an issue with something you tend to hold on to it until it eventually blows up and it’s like a big thing, whereas for me, if I see something, I say something right then and there.

Collin: I don’t like for me to, you know, show you that I can be weak in some points.

Sharadiant: I don’t think you showing your feelings is being weak.

Collin: I would say losing your mom…That was…a lot. Just having to understand, like that was your rock, that was your mom. And the fact that you lost her at a really early age. Not only did it affect you, but it had an effect on me too because I knew her too. I just wished that didn’t happen, I wish that all the time. I wish it didn’t happen to you.

One of Price’s consistent viewers, Nylah Moore, shares her thoughts on the recent creation of the web series. “What I admire most about the web series is the fact that it’s so raw and it brings attention to conversations that most of us are scared to have. It’s those types of moments and those lessons that help us grow into the people we’ll be after this. It’s very real, honest, and vulnerable. Black love in the AUC should be discussed more because the space that we’re in and the prestige that our schools have behind their names, creates these stereotypes of a SpelHouse couple or ClarkHouse couple. We can’t have those assumptions and those stereotypes, but then not have conversation behind what that actually looks like if they were to exist,” says Moore.

Price believes there is a “very real perspective” of black relationships that need to be shared, aside from the Love and Hip Hop view. She’s doing her part in creating a different lens and celebrating the beauty of black love.